and I'm reminded every single day and I hope you are too just about how good God's been and not just how good he's been but how good he is and how good he'll continue to be and amen we got a lot to look forward to if you're saved amen brother Tom read that just a minute ago about his vesture being dipped in blood and you have a name faithful and true King of Kings Lord of Lords I can't wait to see that And I can't wait to be a part of that. Amen. You've got two parts of the return of the Lord there. The coming for his saints. That's when me and you are going up in the rapture. And then you've got the second advent, which is the coming with his saints. And there used to be a kid years ago at youth camp. His name was Bradley. And he was special needs. He was from Pensacola Charity Baptist at Brother Jim McGahee's. And all he could ever talk about was one day when he gets his white horse. And he can't wait for that day. He didn't know much of anything else, but he knew that. Amen. And it was enough to make him happy, so I think it's enough to make me happy, too. Amen. And one of these days, we're getting out of here. Amen. If nothing else brings you any more joy than that, then that ought to make you rejoice a little bit, amen? One day all of our troubles, all of our trials, all of it, it'll be over. The song we used to sing, the cares of life will burst like bubbles. In other words, just like that, over. No transition period. When we are with him, amen, all trials, all tribulations, it'll all be over, amen. So amen, thank God for his goodness. We're gonna be in Luke chapter number four, and I'm gonna start reading in verse number 16. And I don't know when I'm gonna stop, so I don't know what to tell you, but I'm gonna start reading in verse number 16. Luke chapter four, verse 16, the Bible says, and he came, this is Christ, obviously, it says, and he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." Verse 19, the Bible says, "...to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him." And he began to say unto them, This day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, You will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself whatsoever we have heard. done in Capernaum do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in the day of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land. But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elsius the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust him out of the city, and led him into the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong, But he, passing through the midst of them, went his way and came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days. And they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power." Amen, let's pray. Father, I want to thank you for this great opportunity that you've given us again today on the Lord's Day to gather together as the church. And Lord, may we understand and recognize, Lord, just how good you've been to us, Lord, and the fact that you're coming back to get us, Lord, in this world of tribulation. It'll all be over soon. And we thank you, God, for that promise. And we ask you this morning to speak to our hearts Lord, we're asking you to deal with us in a way that only you can, that the Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified and exalted among your people. In Jesus' name we pray these things, amen. So taking this little story here that we read about the Lord, I wanna give you some thoughts and just a little short message this morning on going to church with Jesus. Going to church with Jesus, amen. Now let me say this, that's my desire every time I go to church. Amen, and if you're saved by the grace of God, you know, we say things in church that we really don't think about, like want God to show up. I mean, we say things like that. I say things like that. Well, I pray this morning that God shows up, that Jesus shows up in the service. And that sounds like a good thing to say. And I guess I do pray for that, but Brother Linton Smith used to say, Well, you showed up to church, so why didn't He show up? Amen. I mean, you have Jesus Christ living inside your heart. He ought to show up when you show up. Amen. But I'll be honest with you. I want every church service and I want every time I go to a church service to be all about going to church with Jesus. Now, I like going to church with other people. I like going to church with my wife. I like going to church with all of you. And I've got friends all over this world that I've been in some great church services with, but can I say that none of it means anything? Amen. All of this is in vain. We're meeting here this morning. You burnt gas on the way here in vain if it's not going to church with Jesus Christ. And He is the point of all of it, and He is the purpose of all of it, and He should have the preeminence in all of it. It's just all about going to church with Jesus, amen? There are people all over the country today that are sitting in some sort of nominal Christianity that ain't got no power, no life in it, and I'm telling you, my heart's desire is that He would be in the midst. It's all that matters. This church service that they were having in the synagogue changed that day when He walked through the doors. Amen. I don't know what these Orthodox Jews were thinking. I don't know what they were doing. I know He came unto His own and His own received Him not. They didn't even believe that He was who He said He was. But I'll tell you, the church service changed that day when the door opens. Ain't it a blessing when the door opens and somebody walks in? I mean, I don't know how you feel about it, but I feel great when I hear the door open. Amen. Paul walked in during the middle of Sunday school this morning, disrupt, but it excited me. Why? Because the doors opened, somebody came in. But I'll tell you what's even better than that is the times where I've witnessed Jesus Christ, amen, walk through the door and deal with men's hearts and, amen, change lives and put families back together. Why? Because that's what a church service that Jesus is in can do. It's just all what it's about Ain't that your heart's desire this morning? Amen, I mean, I'm telling you I believe in the faithfulness of a pattern of attendance I believe in a pattern of faithfulness for your life, but man some days we just need those days Amen, I should say every day when Jesus is in the midst and Jesus walks through the doors Whether it's because he came with you or somebody else and helped your life I can think of countless times the Lord has done that for me And so with that in mind, I've just got a few things here about what took place in a church service with Jesus. Now the first thing and the first point that I'd like to bring up to you is what happened prior to his arrival. Now imagine yourself going to church with Jesus, amen, and imagine yourself coming here today hoping that Jesus is gonna be here, but let me just say, before Jesus showed up to the church service, there was an event that took place that you and I know about. And we won't go and read the verses. If you want to flip back and read it for yourself, you'll find out that just before Christ comes to this church service in the synagogue, He was tempted of the devil in the wilderness. That's what preceded His arrival to the church service. And the Lord just spoke to my heart and said, Buddy, you can put yourself right there. Amen. You ever woke up on a Sunday morning and it's just the devil on every hand? Temptation on every hand. How about this? Temptation to stay in the bed. Amen. Temptation to stay on the couch with a cup of coffee. Amen. And Fox News on the TV. I'll hit Fox News again this morning. I'm just saying, before the service came, there was a temptation. And I'm telling you today, we are living in a day where the devil wants to do everything he can in his power to keep God's people from meeting where God's people meet to meet with Jesus Christ. And there's a principle laid forth here that before the service started, there was a temptation. Amen, I would say today there's a temptation simply just to say, it's not worth it to go. And let me just say, it's worth it. Amen, it was worth it that day when Jesus Christ walked through the door. Those little Orthodox Jews there, I'm sure they were glad they were there. And I'm telling you, it's been that way for me every time. There's a temptation. Believe it or not, the pastor is tempted to stay home sometimes. Amen. Y'all have all heard the joke about the woman that came to wake up her wife and said, you've got to go to church today. And he laid in the bed and said, why do I have to go to church today? She said, well, first of all, I'm going to church and your kids are going to church and you've got to go with us. And second of all, you're the pastor. Amen. I'm just saying we all get in that shape. We all face that temptation. We all fight the flesh on a daily basis. Amen. So what's coming down Main Street in my life just as much as it is yours when I'm standing here preaching it to you? A temptation. Not only that, not only a temptation in whether you're even going to be there or not, but how about this? How about a temptation in attitude? Oh man, we all get hit with this one right here. I mean, the devil, let me say this, the devil may not be able to keep you away, and whether you want to be church or whatever you want to do, but we're at church on a Sunday morning, I'll tell you what the devil will do. He may not keep you from showing up, but he'll keep your attitude from being right. Amen. He'll make sure you don't show up ready to worship. Amen. He'll make sure that you show up with every single thing on your mind besides worshiping Jesus Christ and applying your heart to what's being preached and asking God. I mean, sitting in church and saying, Lord, would You please take what's being said, even though it may be by this guy up here, and take Your Word and Your Holy Spirit and speak to my heart and see that God doesn't answer that prayer. But no, most of the time we show up to church and we're thinkin' about this bill and we're thinkin' about where we gotta be after church and we're thinkin' about what's on the docket for next week, amen, and I'm talkin' about this is a temptation of the devil and you ought not give in to that temptation. Amen, sometimes I have to walk on the front steps of the porch out here and say, devil, I got news for ya, you're stayin' right here at least till I get outta church. And I'm tellin' you, as soon as you get outta church, you'll be ready to take shotgun in your car. Just let it rest out there, amen? Get your heart to the right place. I'm just saying, there's always a temptation beforehand. Amen. How many stories do we all have? I mean, I've got my own this morning. Amen. We woke up for church. Let me just say this. Brother Charlie used to say, if you want to leave on time, wake up earlier. That ain't the key. You got to start getting ready earlier. I mean, I've been up for three hours, but we started getting ready at the same time we always do, so we're late. Amen? If it takes you three hours to get ready, start getting ready four hours early. Is that just a practical, can I say that this morning? We don't practice that very well. So this morning we're walking out the door, amen. I'm gonna get in my hacking mode here in just a second, preaching about us trying to get out the door. And we're trying to walk out the door, we're five minutes late, amen, just like usual, amen. And I'm standing there with Haven in the car seat, and just before Anna gets ready to walk out the door, she says, oh yeah, I forgot to pack Haven an outfit in case she poops all over the place. And in that moment, I thought, that's a good idea. And I looked down. Too late. I said, hey Anna, she needs an outfit right now. And if I get too close, I'm going to need an outfit right now. You've never seen such in your life, and you don't want to. Amen, so then what happens? We have to yank her out of the car seat and pull the poop out, amen? Strip her down, get her in the shower, bathe her. I'm talking about the devil right off the bat said, listen, buddy, you may not let me keep you from going, but you'll let me keep you from your attitude being where it needs to be and your heart being in a position to worship you, thinking about every single thing in the world except what matters. And I was tempted. I was tempted. If you wanna alliterate the tease, I was tempted and I was ticked. I mean, we can just keep this going. Amen. So we wrote the church separate, not because we were mad at each other necessarily, although we were probably on the verge a few times. Y'all ever have at least the spiritual discernment to recognize this is the devil? Do you? You should. No, most people are fighting each other, amen, at each other's throats, amen, and they come to church and put their arms around each other as if nothing's wrong. You know what you need to do? You just need to recognize the devil's trying to get in the middle of this thing, devil, you know what you want to, but you're not getting in the way today. And see that God doesn't bless it, amen. See that Jesus doesn't walk through the door. I'm just saying, man, there's always a temptation before. There's always a peril. Amen. That don't ever happen. It never happens. But you know when it happened? On Sunday morning. Y'all with me this morning? And I said that out loud with my mouth to Anna. This never happens except for five minutes before we're supposed, actually five minutes after we're supposed to walk out the door to go to church on Sunday morning. Devil, you're not winning today. Amen. But so often, man, we're in such a state of mind that we give into that peril. Amen? Y'all amen me about the poop, now amen me about this. Don't give in to the peril, the temptation. Not only is there a temptation, but there's a tiredness. Amen, 40 days in the winter and it's being tempted by the devil. If that won't make you tired, I don't know what will. And if there's a word thrown around by people under 40 today, more than there ever has been, it's that I'm tired. When I was younger, I was not allowed to say that. Amen, I haven't been bored in 20 years. Oh, we're tired. Well, everybody's tired. I'm tired, you're tired, we're all tired. Everybody's tired, everybody at McDonald's is tired. We're tired, we're tired, we're tired. I'm tired of being tired. I mean, there's no escape. Do you not see the devil in all that? Trying to keep you away from the things of God and keep you away from what God might have for you? Amen, walking in. Well, it's good to see you today. Well, it's all I can do. Bless me, Lord, please bless me. No, he's not going to do it. I'm saying there's a temptation. Amen. Brother Charlie used to say, fake it till you make it. Amen. We're talking about hypocrites in church. Be a hypocrite. I'm giving you permission. Amen. Paint a smile on your face. Let me tell you this, you've got more good going for you than bad. Amen. God's been good. You're going to heaven when you die. Amen. The Lord could come back today and all this will be over. Amen. I'm talking about, man, just come to church ready to worship God. Amen. And I'm talking about it's not God's fault most of the time, it's our stinking attitude. Amen, I'm just getting right down on the bottom shelf with you today, but I'm saying don't give in to the temptation when it comes to going to church with Jesus, amen. Not only that, we see the prior to arrival. I'm always interested to know what happened with people prior to arrival. Amen, I'm looking out the window, see you walking in, say, I wonder what happened on the way here. You ever wonder that about people? Amen. I sure would like to be a fly on the ceiling in the car to hear the conversation on the way here. Amen. Praise, praise God. Amen. Oh, Lord. I won't, nevermind. I won't say I was gonna bug somebody's car. I might regret that. Amen. There's a temptation. There's, prior to arrival, there's temptation, there's tiredness. But I want you to see, next of all, when you endure temptation, there is a prize to be won for enduring temptation. I see it in verse number 14. He departed him for a season. By the way, the devil goes away in verse number 13, but you notice at the end of the verse, in verse number 13, let's just stay here on the prior to arrival part for just a second. It says, after the devil realized he wasn't gonna get him, says He departed him for a season. Amen? You know what that means? That means He will be back and you are in a battle. Amen. There is no coasting in the Christian life. If you're not moving forward, you're moving backwards. There's no time to retreat in this life that we're living. It says that He departed him for a season. Look at verse number 14. We see prior to arrival there was temptation. And then in verse number 14 it says, And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. And there went out a fame of him through all the region round about, and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all." You know what I see next of all? I see there's power through temptation. You know what I found out in my life? I want to go to church and be blessed and the sermon to be exactly what I need it, and most of the time it's not because I'm the one preaching it, amen? But I want the song to be exactly what it is, what I need for that day. Lord, I'm going through this trial. Please, somebody, sing about a trial, amen, that I'm going through. And we expect that to give us the power that we need. And thank God it does. Thank God for church. But I'll tell you what will give you the power of the Spirit is going through some temptation and coming out on the other side. That's what happened with Jesus here. He immediately leaves this temptation. He heads toward Galilee. He goes into the temple. And the Bible says that He had the power of the Spirit on Him because He withstood some temptation. Amen. And what we're needing more than ever in this day that we're living is somebody who can withstand anything. Amen. Somebody with some grit in their crawl. Amen. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, 58. Be steadfast, unmovable. Amen. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. I'm talking about if you want the power of God on your life, I'm not saying that bad things are always going to happen to you, but I will say somewhere along the way, you're going to have to decide in your heart that I'm going to withstand the storm. Amen. I'm going to stay faithful through the temptation and see that the power of God will not be present with you. Amen. You know, church, if you read church history at all, you would know that the church always thrives in persecution. The kryptonite to the church is comfort and success. Kryptonite to the spiritual life is a life of ease. Amen? I mean, it destroys our Christian walk. When my life gets so easy that the littlest little thing will derail my walk with God, Amen. Y'all with me? Then you probably need to go through a little bit more. Amen. You know what happened over there in Daniel chapter number 3? You got three Hebrew boys there, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, a picture of us being in the world there and battling. And they go into the fiery furnace. Man, we talk about these things as if they're just some sort of no big deal. Can you imagine being thrown into a fiery furnace that was somehow, I don't even know how, seven times hotter than it normally is? It was so hot that the guys who threw them in there died from the heat standing outside the furnace. Amen, I'm talking about, I'm talking about, man, as those boys walk through that fire, and out of nowhere, a fourth man shows up. Why? Because they were in the fire, and Jesus is a very present help in time of trouble, amen? He was with them in the fire, and as a result of that, Nebuchadnezzar's mind was changed about who God was. Why? Because power came through trial. What did Job say? He said, when he hath tried me, I shall come forth like gold. I'll tell you a natural fault I have is I don't want the trial, I just want the gold. Amen? Lord, please, give me exactly what I think I need. And he says, no, but I'll give you this trial to go through. Ain't that what he did with Paul? He said, I besought the Lord thrice about this thorn. God said, no, Paul, you may think that's what you need, but that's really not what you need. I hate it when God does that. Lord, don't you know? Yeah, I know. But here's my grace. And I'm telling you right now, right now, right now, looking back on my life and you look back on yours, His grace has always, always, always, always been sufficient For whatever you need, you may be sitting here, I'm telling you, there's some people going through things today that I sit there and say, I don't see how I could ever go through that. And you know why? Because you're not going through it. You may not have sufficient grace for that today, but you'll have it when you get there. You know what I mean? I mean, I've looked at some people's trials and said, there ain't no way I could go through that. But I'll tell you this, whatever trials I've been through, there's been enough grace. Amen. We see the temptation, the peril that came before, but we also see that power comes through enduring trials. Amen. I don't know about you, but as soon as the trial starts, I'm ready for it to be over. And God says, no, just stay here for a little while. Why? There's power. But there's more to it than that. Look at verse number 15. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. I'll tell you what trials and temptations will produce in your life. Now it can go one way or the other, it's up to you. But I'm telling you, God has gotten the glory through many people's trials. And so if for no other reason that you might be going through what you are, whatever it is, I don't know, think about it this way. God, I don't know why, but I know what for. And I know the what for is so that you might get the glory. No matter what happens to me, may the Lord Jesus Christ be glorified in my life. And at the end of the day, that really is what it's all about. Prior to arrival, there's temptation, there's power, through that temptation. But then next of all, we see once this service begins, we see the priority. Christ walks in, he says, hand me that book. I mean, I'm sure Christ had something to say himself. But he said, you know what? I want to read. And he took that book and it says that he started reading from the book of Isaiah. Amen. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Can you imagine the Word of God reading the Word of God? I mean, can you imagine that? I would like to have been there. Wouldn't you? Amen. But I'm telling you what the Word of God does today. Brother Tom read the verse a minute ago. That's who He is. He is the Word. And when we stand and we preach the Word, we see the priority is the preaching of the Word of God. And let me just say this, it's not in any sort of method or anything like that. It's about the preached Word of God that still will make a difference in the lives of people today. We don't need gimmicks, amen. We don't need shows. The book still works, amen. The Word of God still can change people's lives. It's still a two-edged sword. It's still alive. It's still quick. It's still powerful. And that's the priority. It's the verse the Lord laid on my heart when I became pastor is holding forth the word of life. That's what we want to do. You say, are you against ideas? No, no, no, no, no. I'm against ideas taking place of God's word. It still makes a difference. Amen. The plan for the young and the old is this book right here. That's the plan. I talked to a local preacher, I don't know, it's been a couple of years ago, and good man, good man. But he found out I was a preacher, which is, I always dread that. I would rather you not know, man. Are y'all okay this morning? I feel like you're fading. Don't give in to the temptation, come back. Amen. And he said, I need to pick your brain because I don't know what to do. He said, I don't know how to get young people to come to church. Which, hey, that's a problem everywhere. Not just with young people. And he said, I've tried everything. I've tried popcorn on Wednesday nights. And I'm sitting there listening like, OK. I mean, I like popcorn. But I don't go to church because of popcorn. I've tried modernizing the music more. I've tried this. I've tried that. I said, brother, have you tried this? Now, you may not get the numbers you want to see. None of us ever do. You could always use more people at church. But this book makes the difference. You may not see the result this side of eternity, but man, God has given you the responsibility of preaching this book right here and leave the results up to God. Amen. Golly, we need the word of God. Next of all, we see who had the preeminence. We see who had the preeminence. Look at verse number 20. It says, and he closed the book and he gave it again to the minister and sat down in the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue. I love this right here. We're fastened on him. Amen. I mean, Jesus walks through the door. Can you imagine this church service? I wish He would walk through the door right now. Amen. I'm talking about He walks through the door. He says, I don't know. I'm ad-libbing here to the Scripture. Don't judge me too bad. Amen. This is ad-libbing to the story. He says, alright, minister, you sit down. Give me that book. I'm going to read the book. Amen. And he gets up, and he reads the book, and they're listening, and he's done, and he closes the book, and the Bible says he gives it back to the minister as if, I'm through doing what I'm doing, but even after he was through, the Bible says everybody's eyes that were in the synagogue were still fastened on him. and I don't know where he was, but he apparently was not still in the pulpit or up on the platform. He must have walked over to the side, and I could just see in unison all of their heads turned. Amen, they couldn't believe what he said. They couldn't believe how much power he had. I'm talking about, we're talking about Jesus Christ this morning, and I'm telling you, in all things that happen here, the priority of it all, the preaching of it all, there is only one who has the preeminence. And it's Jesus Christ. Amen. Not only in church, but in your life, in your family, in decisions that you make. Can you say that Jesus Christ has the preeminence or is it some sort of habit, some sort of habitual sin, some sort of fashion of this world? No, give the preeminence to Jesus Christ and see that it doesn't make a difference in your life. Amen. We blame too much on God. Amen. But we haven't paid attention to how big of a dummy we've been. Amen. Lord, why didn't you answer this prayer? Why ain't you done this? Why ain't you done this? And God's trying to get us to say, look at what all I have done. And by the way, I didn't do that because if I answered that prayer for you, you'd be in a mess today. I'm talking about he knows more than what you need. He knows more about what you need than you do. Amen. I done preached myself out of breath this morning. I'm just saying, if all of us, can you imagine, if all of us in here this morning showed up to church giving God the preeminence, giving God the preeminence, giving, all their eyes were fastened. And can I say that that's the way a church service should be conducted? Your eye shouldn't be on some preacher or some man. If the preacher's doing his job correctly, if everybody's heart's in the right place, that our eyes will be all of the eyes in the synagogue. I can't even imagine that. Fastened on Him. And there's no indication here about how long they stayed. Do y'all ever think about stuff like that? Do you ever think about things that the Bible doesn't say? I don't know how, but man, it must have been something. And man, I'm telling you, I've been in some church services in my life, and not just church services, where God manifested Himself to me. You ever been there? I'm not talking about seeing a 700-foot Jesus. I'm not talking about any of that weird stuff. But I'm talking about I have seen God in my life. And I'm telling you, when Jesus shows up and your eyes are fastened on Him, it'll put in your heart not to want to be anywhere else. Man, if you've ever been in His presence, you don't want to be anywhere else. If you've ever heard His voice, we sang a minute about it a little bit ago, you'll never be satisfied with anything else. He had the preeminence. The problem with modern Christianity is that Jesus Christ does not have the preeminence. And that's the problem with contemporary worship, is it takes the emphasis off of the preeminent one and on the performance of it I'm telling you right now. And I'm not up here to harp on all that kind of stuff. That's not the point of why I preach. But I'm telling you, I had a video pop up on my YouTube the other day. Y'all can be carnal this morning and admit that you've watched an audition on The Voice before. Amen. And I had this performance on The Voice show up and there was a Christian song called Gratitude by some guy named Brandon Lake. He's not the one I know. And I'm listening to it, and you know, the words were totally fine. But you know what everybody in the room was doing? They're waving their lighters. And I'm sitting here thinking to myself, something's off here. You see, there's a point to remaining modest in worship. And we're not trying to be old-fashioned. I'll tell you what the world will call it, though. The world will call it old-fashioned. See, I'm not worshiping away. I'm just trying to give God all the preeminence. It's not about the man singing it. It's about the one he's singing about. And when the emphasis gets taken off of him and placed on the performance, something's wrong in that church service. You can like that, lump it, do whatever you want to with it, but I'm telling you there is a point to all this, and that is to keep the preeminent one in his rightful place. Two more things this morning and I'll be done. We see there's a problem in this church service. After all this takes place, I mean, can you imagine? One of them pops up and says, is not this Joseph's son? There's always somebody who's going to pop up with some sort of critical attitude in what God's doing. Is this not the son of the carpenter? You say, what was that person's problem? I'll tell you what his problem was. It's what our problem is. And it's the problem of familiarity. He evidently knew who Jesus was. And I'll tell you what gets me. When I say gets me, I mean that I have a problem with. is just doing the next thing because it's what I've always done. And I'm telling you, when you fall into that rut, you can only do that for so long before you need to see Jesus Christ. There's people in church this morning who are on the verge. They're in and they're out because they've become familiar with the whole thing. We know when to say amen. We know when to lift our hands. We've gotten so familiar that even when we do know to do it, we don't do it. But what if we let Jesus have the preeminence? Is not this the carpenter's son? And then we get the verse where the Lord says, a prophet has honor except in his own country. But that wasn't the prophet's fault. People say that as if it was his fault. No, it wasn't. It was their fault. They should have understood who he was. They should have understood that he was the Redeemer of Israel. He wasn't just the carpenter's son. This was way bigger of a deal than they realized. This is Jesus Christ that we're talking about, and he deserves the glory. He deserves all that we could ever give him. Don't let yourself become so familiar that you lose the wonder of it all. I don't ever want to forget the day that He saved my wretched soul from hell. I don't ever want to forget the day that I met the best friend that I would ever have, who's a friend that sticketh closer than a brother, who'll never leave me, who'll never forsake... I don't ever want to become too familiar to that. You know what kills marriage is? Familiarity. Hello, we won't stay here too long. I'm just saying, you got to do something to keep it... I mean, we heard in the movie the other night, keep it fresh, man. Don't become so familiar. And how about this? If you have let it become so familiar that it no longer moves you, you say, what is it? The Spirit of God. Jesus Christ. Why don't you get down on your knees and say, God, I have backslidden to the point where the preached Word of God and the Spirit of God will not even move my heart. You see, where revival comes is when you get down and be honest about who you are and repent of your own unbelief so that God can fill you back up again and Jesus Christ can regain the preeminence in your life. Last of all, I'm trying to find my place. I got to preaching so intense, I turned my page on an accident. Last of all, I want you to see when the church service is passed, what happens. Look at verse number 33. The Bible says, and in the synagogue there was a man which had a spirit of an unclean devil in the synagogue. and cried out with a loud voice saying, let us alone, what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. You say, what happened after this big old thing took place? The devil shows back up in the form of a man with an unclean spirit and with devils in the synagogue. You say, what's the principle? I said a minute ago that when the devil leaves, he only leaves for a season. Amen. He's going to show back up somewhere along the way to cause you problems again. And by the way, the devils knew who he was too. He said, we know who you are. We know you're the Holy One. The Bible says that the devils believe and tremble. Don't you want to go to church with Jesus? A lot of us were out from the get go because we can't take the temptation. We can't withstand the peril. But I'm telling you, there is reward to be found in withstanding temptation. There's power in the Holy Ghost. There's a priority of the service, the Word of God. There's the preeminence of the Holy One. Amen. I don't know. I mean, we say these kind of things as if they're just a passerby statement, but I want to see Jesus Christ. Until I get to see Him face to face, I want to see Him with faith in my life. We need more than just nominal Christianity. We need the manifested presence of Jesus Christ flowing through our lives and through our services. Let's bow our heads this morning. Do you mind playing something, Ms. Terry? I want to give you the opportunity to respond to the message this morning. I don't know where you're at in your heart and your mind, But I know across the board, not just here, in many other places, we've let the problem of familiarity creep into our lives. What did David say? He said, renew a right spirit within me. Restore unto me. He didn't say, restore unto me thy salvation. He said, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. I don't know, maybe you lost your joy. Whatever the case, I would implore you, I would ask you, I would invite you this morning. Find your place, way to an altar. Ask God to move you from where you are, closer to Him. Let Jesus have the preeminence.